Page 96 of Partner Pursuit
The five women chatted comfortably as they ate their lunches. The two executives asked some legal questions, which the three lawyers answered easily.
Colette shot Audrey a look, indicating that Audrey should start the pitch for business. Audrey was starting with a soft appeal, with Colette making the closing argument. Audrey could feel her shoulders hunch over, almost as if she was a supplicant. Colette raised her eyebrows at Audrey, pulling her shoulders back. Audrey straightened.
Audrey said, “We’re also hoping we can bring in a case to show that we’re a team, and expand the parameters so that they realize there’s enough business to support both of us aspartners.”
“This is why women find it hard to be the rainmakers. We feel awkward asking for business,” Winniesaid.
“We’re not asking as women, but because we think we make a great team and will provide youtop-qualitylegal representation. That case we just discussed is only one of the federal securities litigations that Audrey and Winnie have won in the past five years,” Colette said. She pushed their bios acrossthe table.
“Last year, Colette won an accounting fraud case, and she worked on many financial cases during hertwo-yearclerkship with a Southern District judge,” Audrey said. “We’ve also all done hostile takeover cases. Feel free to ask us any questions that youmayhave.”
The two women from Global Capital smiled. “We do have one matter we’d like to get your counsel on. We’ll ask ourin-housecounsel to coordinatewithyou.”
Audrey, Winnie and Colette all broke out into huge grins.
“Pitching gets easier the more you do it,” the senior investment banker said. “I always remember what my mentor said to me: if you don’t ask, you’ve already got the no. You might as well ask and try to gettheyes.”
“That’s always been my philosophy,” Colettesaid.
“It’s just that you have to be prepared for that overt rejection,” Winniesaid.
“Rejection is fine, as long as it’s for legitimate reasons. It’s one of the best ways to learn what is working and what isn’t working. And you get better each time, as long as you improve based on those rejections,” the senior bankersaid.
“So how can we improve the pitch we just did?” Audrey asked.
“Just rely on your expertise as lawyers. You don’t need to appeal to us as women, although we appreciate that. But your track records are impressive, and we wouldn’t hire you unless they were. We need to defend our decision to our managementaswell.”
“Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us and for your mentoring,” Audrey said. She was impressed that they had given so much of themselves to the three of them. She hoped she was that kind of role model for other women.
Chapter Fifty-One
Audrey microwaved some turkey meatballs for her Thanksgiving Day dinner andre-readWinnie’s email from Tuesday:
To:Audrey Willems; Colette Caron
From:WinnieChu
Date: November 23
Re: Global Capital business development
Just ran into Michael. He told the business development committee about our bringing in Global Capital as a client and they’re thrilled—and very impressed. They apparently tried to get Global Capital as a client before—with no luck. Have a great Thanksgiving holiday!
That was good news. Separately, Winnie had invited her to join her and her family in Queens for Thanksgiving, if she wanted to take a break from prepping for her trial. Audrey had declined that invite, just as she had said no to Jake’s invite to meet his family and have Thanksgiving with them. She needed to continue preparing for her trial starting on Monday. Jake had understood why she had said no. He’d offered to bring her back a doggy bag of turkey and other fixings. She’d requested apple pie. He said he’d text her a picture of all the desserts and she could choose what she wanted. She was expecting him to say something about his Dad missing Thanksgiving last year, but he’d just looked sad. He said he was looking forward to her meeting his family when her trialwasover.
She’d also been nervous about meeting his parents, even though she liked his sister. He was really close with his mom. He’d said his mom hadn’t liked Veronika and he regretted ignoring that red flag. And his mom had borne the brunt of a relationship with a workaholic lawyer.
Her doorbell rang. She answered the intercom, and it was a food delivery guy. She wasn’t expectinganyfood.
The man said, “Your mom ordered you a Thanksgiving dinner.”
Audrey went downstairs to accept the bag. Back upstairs, she opened the package to find all her favorite Thanksgiving foods. She pushed aside her papers on the table and called hermom.
Her mom picked up on the first ring. “Happy Thanksgiving!”
“Thanks, Mom. This is so sweet ofyou.”
“I felt bad that you weren’t having a Thanksgiving dinner.”
